It’s a time of expansion, and today’s supply chain lives in unprecedented times. The post-pandemic world continues to be reshaped daily by conflict, political machinations, and a more connected than ever global community.

Traditionally, the supply chain ran on historical data, emphasizing the need for cheaper and linear paths. Reliance on historical data was the norm, and each individual step of the supply chain relied on the due diligence of the one before it.

But in an era with little precedence, historical data can only go so far and predict so much. With heightened geopolitical tensions, increasing consumer demands, and rising costs, this traditional system is no longer viable. 

Warehouse management technology (WMT) has focused primarily on optimizing what happens inside the warehouse, but the operations of the present are being asked to respond to real-time changes in orders, inventory, transportation, suppliers, and demand.

As a result, the warehouse can no longer operate as an isolated node. Instead, the solution is a symbiotic relationship, with systems so integrated that issues are identified and dealt with as early in the process as raw material procurement. 

Symbiotic Integration

Synergy is often a corporate buzzword used excessively in the boardroom, but in the everyday function of the supply chain, it’s an absolute necessity. Establishing data connectivity between the WMS (Warehouse Management System) with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and TMS (Transportation Management System) ensures the continued functioning and flourishing of the process as a whole.

The blunt truth is that it’s impossible to improve what isn’t measured, and KPI’s need to be measured from start to finish. Ensuring on-time delivery, order accuracy, and inventory turns are the basics necessary for success.

With a fully integrated system, inventory levels and order statuses are automatically put in sync, and the incorporation of financial and customer data is vital for a comprehensive review of logistics expenses. This improved visibility links what was traditionally isolated data in its own node, to a piece of a bigger and broader predictor for financial planning. 

And the benefits are cascading. Integration provides automated alerts, providing continuous feedback in such facets as labor scheduling and warehouse layout. This allows for data consolidation into single interfaces, making it easier to monitor across the warehouse and transportation functions.

With a reduction in inventory holding costs, enhanced delivery speed and accuracy, supply chain costs are lowered while customer satisfaction goes up. A unified approach leads to increased efficiency and better service levels across the distribution network. 

The Perfect Storm

The supply chain is currently operating under the conditions of a perfect storm. Unpredictable demand swings fueled by social media and increasing customer demands, in addition to geopolitical turmoil, are forcing the warehouse to focus not just on cost, but resilience and agility.

The harsh truth is that luxury in delivery has become the expectation. Same-day or one-day delivery is no longer just an option for the customer, but an operational necessity for the retailer. Management of complex, interconnected systems that expand across the globe containing quintillion bytes of data each and every day is an impossible task for anyone. Without AI, this is just “noise”, information that is essentially useless to the naked human eye.

Break the Walls Down

This is where artificial intelligence and the warehouse expand beyond four physical walls. Good and proper integration starts at the very beginning of the process, all the way at the start where algorithms are already adjusting to put the right products in front of the right consumer, even before the sale is finalized.

Traditionally, this information was siloed and passed from one stage to the next, creating a working yet flawed system. Infusing intelligence in the system means smarter inventory allocation across the network. Smart allocation puts the needed products in the prime locations for not only storage, but optimal transportation from warehouse to shelf. With full integration,

AI can orchestrate across the supply chain, choosing optimal picking routes, which deliveries can be bundled together, and even predicting which products are most likely to be returned, infusing reverse logistics into the process. 

By breaking these walls down and connecting neural networks from hundreds of demand signals all at once, the supply chain looks less like a stack of papers easily shuffled, and more like a gently flowing stream.

These neural networks analyze different data, like historical sales or seasonality, and combine that with real-time, external data integration, like weather, economic, or social media trends. With this data, retailers can forecast errors and virtually eliminate stockouts.

By following these trends, retailers can manage their inventory across every level of the supply chain, from warehouse to the backroom to the store shelf. The optimized network can see thousands of locations all at once and help to determine the best places to put the product, reducing transportation and storage costs while providing predictive replenishment and dead stock prevention.

All of this orchestration comes together in real time, bringing fulfillment to a centralized platform. Multiple sales channels, from online to in-store to third-party retail platforms, are siphoned into one centralized hub, allowing for faster scaling in e-commerce. 

Integration With Labor

Change of any kind brings its own set of fears and challenges, and as Artificial Intelligence is integrated more fully into both personal and professional lives, fear of replacement by machines is a very real concern for workers. However, AI in the warehouse isn’t meant as a replacement, but as an augmentation.

AI can coordinate your teams and automated systems, calculate individual moves, and schedule your orders in real time by creating advanced dashboards, thereby shortening the learning curve for operators with intuitive interfaces. Just as order picking is automatically tracked to optimize delivery, so too can an integrated warehouse optimize labor. Real-time integration also means optimizing scheduling and placement, putting workers where they need to be at the most needed junctures.

In addition to easy-to-use interfaces allowing for quick training, automated systems also ease the everyday wear and tear on the body. Optimal scheduling doesn’t just mean having the right amount of labor force, but optimizing labor placement within the warehouse itself, essentially mapping the warehouse and placing workers where they are needed most.

Alongside the automated machines now performing the most labor-intensive work, workers can optimize their own individual output while minimizing physical stress. The result isn’t just a smarter and more efficient warehouse, but a smarter, more efficient, and happier workforce. 

 Integration is a Necessity

The simple truth is that isolation is no longer a descriptor that can be used anywhere along the supply chain. Information must be shared instantaneously, from providers to warehouses to retailers, if trust and reliability with customers is to be maintained. The fundamental unit of warehouse optimization is no longer the warehouse itself.

The next-generation WMS must understand what is happening across the network and use that information to make better execution decisions inside the facility.